178 D0TTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XI.-B. S. 
of January, 1671, all necessary arrangements were 
completed, and on that day Morgan embarked with 
one thousand two hundred men, in five boats and 
thirty-two canoes, for Panama. 
In ascending the river Chagres many impediments 
presented themselves,—a rapid current, a want of 
practice in managing the flat-bottomed and overloaded 
canoes, and the utmost scarcity of provisions. The 
ambuscades placed on the banks, which Morgan in¬ 
tended to surprise and plunder of their provisions, 
having been seized by the general terror which the 
fall of San Lorenzo had produced, had abandoned their 
position long before the buccaneers reached them, and 
left nothing save their traces behind. Exhausted with 
fatigue and tormented by hunger, six days had al¬ 
ready been spent without reaching Cruces, a village 
which under ordinary circumstances may be gained in 
thirty-six hours. Many of the pirates began to mur¬ 
mur and to curse the day when engaging in an under¬ 
taking which they now deemed beyond their power 
to accomplish. Morgan, however, backed by a large 
majority, succeeded in quelling the discontent, and 
tried to raise the spirits of his followers by brilliant 
promises of future gain and immediate prospects of 
plenty on arriving at Cruces. 
At last Cruces was reached, but how great was the 
disappointment on finding most of the houses in 
flames, the inhabitants fled, and, except sixteen jars 
of Peruvian wine, a bag full of bread, and several cats 
and dogs, provisions of every kind removed! The 
march to Panama was, therefore, pushed on with 
